


Shoeshine Head

by juliepowers



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-28 23:41:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15717468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juliepowers/pseuds/juliepowers
Summary: "I guess we're dating... whatever... I don't like labels." April and Andy figure out how to actually be in a relationship. Set right after Media Blitz.





	Shoeshine Head

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!  
> I'm new here and just trying to write more. I figured writing some of my favorite characters could help motivate me :) let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is always appreciated!

“APRIL!” Andy yelled after her as she walked quickly passed the shoeshine stand. It wasn’t that she was trying to avoid him. Quite the opposite. She just wasn’t sure how to act around him now that they were…dating? That was the big question. Were they dating? She just didn’t want to be the one to talk first. She spun around mid-thought. “Hey,” he said as his bright eyes pierced through her.

“Hello,” she said, failing to keep a grin from forming on her face. 

“I was wondering if you, uh, would like to accompany me back to my place after work? Well, technically it’s Burly’s place, but he’s gone for the weekend because his little sister’s rat died and she’s forcing him to have a funeral at their parent’s house. He thought it was lame, but I told him he should go because, I mean, how many times in your life do you get to go to a rat funeral? Ha! How awesome is that? I mean,” she could literally see his brain finding its way back on track, “unless you feel weird being by ourselves the first time we hang out, which I totally get. We could like go to JJ’s, or I could give you a tour of where I used to live in the pit, or-“

“Dude!” April cut him off, laughing at his rambling. “Your place would be totally fine. Sounds cool to me.”

“Cool,” he chuckled out. His hands found their way to her waist and he leaned forward then stopped midway. “Wait, um, is this okay?”

April rolled her eyes and grabbed his face, pulling it down to meet hers. The kiss was quick but soft, and when she pulled away she looked at him. His eyes were still closed and he had a dazed look on his face. She breathed out quickly and let go of his face. “Alright well… I will see you,” she paused to do finger guns and then mentally cut her hands off so she could never do that again, “after work.”

“Okay,” he said softly, his eyes clouded over and his body still crouched down from having to meet April halfway. She spun around quickly and shuffled back to the office before she allowed herself to sit at the shoeshine stand all day. 

****************  
April looked at the clock and silently mumbled what she thought sounded like a curse to try and make the clock tick faster. If only Orin were here. He had a huge book of curses, and she was sure there was one in there about speeding up time. There was only fifty four minutes left until the work day was over and she could skip out that heavenly door and straight to the shoeshine stand. Not that she had ever skipped in her entire life. But there was something about that damn shoeshinist that made her think about thinking about maybe skipping. Ugh. Maybe she had a case of shoeshine head. 

She couldn’t put her finger on the moment she knew she was going to forgive him. Maybe she had a long time ago. Maybe it was when Natalie sent her that video of a handcuffed Andy sitting on the curb talking to that dumb police man. Maybe it wasn’t until she went to ask him how his first day doing all of her least favorite things was, and he asked for the list for tomorrow. She didn’t know, but she was already glad she did. And that was only yesterday. He asked her to hang out last night, but her parents forced her to come home for their weekly family dinner. She was pissed, but Andy made it less hellish by texting her play by plays of the movie he was watching (he had a very interesting take on what Inception was about…). But tonight she was free and nothing could stop her from going on her first official date with Andy. 

Her attempts at cursing were distracted by her phone vibrating on her desk. She flipped it over and her whole body tingled when she saw it was from Andy. She rolled her eyes at herself for feeling this way over a stupid boy. She wasn’t in high school anymore, why did he have this effect on her? Those thoughts were forgotten when she opened the message that read, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about tonight all day :) Only 50 more minutes!!!!!!!! I already have a list of awesome stuff that we could do! But you totally get to choose obviously lol.” She was sure her face was bright red and she quickly looked around to see if anybody had taken notice. Donna and Jerry were still focused on their computers, and Tom was nowhere to be found so she was safe. She quickly replied, “okay weirdo lol.” She thought fast and typed, “as long as making out a bunch is on that list I’m there.” She hit send before she could overthink it and immediately received a long string of hearts and then in all caps “DUH”. She bit her lip and hesitated before she sent back a simple red heart.  
*****************  
The drive to Burly’s place was comfortable as Andy recounted his day and asked April questions about hers. She didn’t want to talk about anything work related, but laughed a little bit when Andy started ranting about how dumb Kyle was. Oh Kyle. 

After he parked in the driveway (apparently the garage was filled with equipment for Mouse Rat), he looked at her and said, “wait there,” as he ran around the front of the car to open her door. She rolled her eyes when he gestured for her to get out of the car and said loudly, “M’lady.” She got out of the car and stared at Andy as he shut her door. When he faced her, she grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him down to kiss him hard on the mouth. There was just something about the fact that he cared so much about the little things that made her want to make out with him all the time. She pulled away and rolled her lips as he stuck his elbow out for her to grab onto and led her to his front door. 

He opened the front door, which seemed to stay unlocked at all times, and turned the lights on as they entered the house. The TV was blaring and he explained to her his genius plan to keep the TV on all day so that robbers didn’t come in. She decided not to remind him that he could just lock his front door, and instead told him that he was super smart. He laughed and stuck his hand up for a high-five, which she gladly returned. 

April brought her hand back to her side and rolled her lips.

“I am going to order the world’s best pizza for us. But it has to be a surprise so… I’m going to go in Burly’s room and order it and I’ll be right back!” Andy raced into the other room, which apparently was Burly’s, and April looked around the glorified frat house. It was honestly exactly how she had imagined. Not that she had imagined his house or anything… that would be weird. Right? 

“Ha HA! It will be here in 25 minutes! In the meantime…. I have an idea.” He immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her out the back door.   
****************  
“Okay April! Ready?” she heard his voice from behind her barricade of a collection of pool noodles and moldy boxes they found in the creepy shed in the corner of the yard. 

“More ready than you are Dwyer!” she heard him chuckle and loudly countdown from three. 

“EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!” he yelled and she jumped up and raced to the middle of the yard where they had preset a box of about forty water balloons. Somehow, she beat Andy there and grabbed as many as she could, cradling them to her shirt. She could feel some of the balloons breaking in the process and soaking the front of her, but she was in the zone and didn’t let that slow her down. Andy had just arrived at the box so April had a clear shot of him and took it. Andy looked up just as the balloon pelted him on the shoulder. April’s face brightened and her eyes widened as she saw Andy processing what happened. She started to make her way back to the barricade, dropping most of the balloons in the process. Just as she turned the corner behind the pool noodles, Andy grabbed her from behind. She felt all the balloons in his arms explode between them as they both fell to the ground shrieking. 

“Ha HA I got you,” Andy said as he pinned her down to the ground. His eyes were shining, and she couldn’t help but smile and roll her eyes. 

“Yeah, but I got you first so who’s the real winner here?” she asked as she picked off pieces of broken balloons that were sticking to his face and arms. As he contemplated her question, she sneakily reached beside her and grabbed an intact balloon and smashed it on his head.

“I win,” she smirked and he got a mischievous look in his eyes. Before she could panic too much, Andy had thrown her body over his shoulder and ran into the house like a fireman. He threw her onto the couch and he began his revenge by tickling her. She couldn’t help the laughs that came out of her as his hands poked and wiggled around her body. Just as he found her weakness (behind her knees), the doorbell rang. 

“Pizza,” Andy whispered excitedly as he leaned down to peck her on the lips. As he ran to answer the door, April felt her heartbeat start slowing down. She was exhausted and soaked, but couldn’t believe how happy she felt in that moment. This was actually real.   
*******************  
The couch was soaked from their tickle fight, so they decided to eat in the kitchen. Andy was out of paper plates anyway, and he had broken their only glass plates a few days ago on “accident”. April sat on the counter beside the pizza box and Andy leaned against the sink. 

“Dude, this seriously is the best pizza ever,” admitted April as she stared wide-eyed at the cheesy slice.

“Right?! Breakfast and pizza are my two favorite things, so why not mix them?” The pizza looked pretty gross if April was being honest. With eggs and bacon and mini French toast sticks on top, who knows what that would taste like? Answer: Heaven. 

“I want to eat this every day for the rest of my life,” said April honestly.

“Duuuuude. Deal. Let’s do it,” Andy nodded his head excitedly and they sealed the deal with a high five.

“I mean I guess that means I have to come over everyday…” April said. She didn’t know why she was still kind of nervous around him. She just didn’t want to ruin what they had right now. 

“Duh! I was kind of already thinking you would…” Andy trailed off blushing, and she could tell he was worried they weren’t on the same page about their relationship. He was just as nervous as she was, and it honestly made her feel a little better. 

April put the crust of her pizza back in the box and gestured for Andy to come closer. He smiled a small smile before awkwardly walking over and stopping between her legs finishing his piece on the way over. She stared at him for a second before leaning up and kissing him. His lips were greasy and tasted like bacon, but she kind of liked it. He responded to her lips immediately and his hands found their way to her sides. She could feel water drip down her sides as he squeezed there and she giggled against his mouth. 

“Hey, I have a ton of shirts and stuff if you want to borrow one! I don’t want you to be cold or something.” What April really wanted was for him to keep kissing her and maybe suck on her neck, but she guessed she was a little cold.

Andy lifted her off the counter and she followed him to his room. She was glad he didn’t pick a shirt off of the floor like she expected him to. Not that she would mind because it would probably smell like him, but he was kind of sweaty all the time… 

“Here this is my favorite shirt. My mom had it made for the whole band a few Christmases ago. I think I wore this every day for like a year,” he said chucking softly. She took the shirt and smiled when she saw the words Mouse Rat written in big letters on the front. 

“Oh! Uh, I’ll leave you alone so you can change. Heh, um there are some shorts in that drawer over there if you want. They’ll be like way too big, but you can probably tie them up so they don’t fall off,” he rambled as he made his way to the bedroom door.

“Dude you don’t have to leave, it’s fine. It’ll literally take me two seconds.” April felt Andy’s eyes on her back as she peeled off her sopping shirt and dried off with one of Andy’s t-shirts she found on the floor. She smiled to herself as she slipped Andy’s shirt on. His smell engulfed her senses, and she was pretty sure she was never giving this shirt back. She could still feel Andy watching her as she walked to the drawer he said had shorts in it. She hesitated before slipping her pants off and luxuriating in the feeling of not being confined in those stupid wet jeans. 

The shorts were on and April walked right out the door avoiding eye contact with Andy and heading straight for the couch. Maybe if she acted confident, she would feel confident. She caught a glimpse of Andy’s dumbfounded face on her way out the door and it made her feel a whole lot better. Sitting on the couch, he was nowhere to be found. She waited a full fifteen seconds (at least) before calling, “Dude c’mon! We have a movie to watch.” Within seconds Andy bounded in looking flustered and hopped on the couch next to her. She caught a small blush on his face before he started rambling about movie options. Yeah. April could get used to this.   
****************  
About ten minutes into Rambo (Andy’s choice definitely NOT April’s), April felt Andy’s hand drop next to hers on the couch. She could feel tingles all the way to her spine. What was this? Eighth Grade? They had already made out a ton so why did it feel so good to have his hand just brush up against hers? April felt like a stupid kid and couldn’t take it anymore so she grabbed Andy’s hand and intertwined their fingers before she could get even more nervous. Her face reddened and she rolled her lips, never breaking eye contact with the TV screen. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Andy staring at her before he scooted closer to her and brought their hands into his lap. His thumb lightly drew patterns into her skin and it made her look at him and smile. 

“Hey,” said Andy with a big goofy grin. April just rolled her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder to relax and watch this stupid movie. This felt good. And if April had anything to do with it they wouldn’t actually be watching the movie much longer….

Surprisingly, it was actually Andy who pounced her just a few minutes later. There was nothing graceful about it, but April wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. They spent the next 1 hour and 34 minutes of the movie sucking on each other’s necks and giggling about it. April still had no idea who the hell John Rambo was, but she literally couldn’t care less.


End file.
